Item - KGB Doublecross

This book started out promisingly. It drops the reader right into the action and creates genuine interest in what is going on. It also contains a lot of sections (relative to other books in the series), so it gives the impression that there's a lot to explore. Unfortunately, it falls on its face very swiftly. First of all, it uses the game system more than the previous volumes... much more. In fact, there are very few choices in the book. Most of the time, you read a bit, roll the dice, hope that the roll was good (which is often hard to tell), then read some more. In the long run, you have no control over the story, and in at least one place I very bitterly resented being unable to make a particular decision. This isn't a gamebook; it's more like a randomly-generated action novel -- the same events happen every time (barring death), but the details are always slightly different. Could be interesting, but it fails totally due to the fact that TSR's copy editor must have had better things to do than ensure that this book was error free. There are so many incorrect paths and reversed page numbers that it's impossible to get through the book without frequently back-tracking just to figure out why your perfect die roll led to something horrible happening (or vice versa). Attempting to correct mistakes with the game mechanics becomes so distracting that it's impossible to pay attention to the plot and characters (which might otherwise have been at least marginally interesting -- the book is not without traces of talent). In any case, it almost makes me glad that TSR practically stopped publishing gamebooks after this series -- they had a special talent for really screwing things up spectacularly! Boo, hiss, etc.

More reviews by Demian